THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (Dir. Christopher Nolan)
First off, I'm quite amazed I even enjoyed a 'superhero movie'. And yeah, I know, nowadays they're different, more serious, more exciting, yada yada. Batman's come a long way since that old, cringey TV series with Adam West. And I've tried; I tried to watch Batman Begins one time, but it got to that awful bit with Liam Neeson being a ninja/samurai, and I gave up on it. Too much 'mentor' and 'become fear' shit. But The Dark Knight Rises? Well fuck, that was on a whole other level.

I'm not going to pretend I like superhero movies now - because it's just not my scene - but I did enjoy this film. Christopher Nolan once again waved his magic filmmaking wand and I was more than happy to sit through a long-ass film with big-ass explosions and not shout "fuck off Michael Bay!" at it. The film was just, consistently, brilliantly, well-made. The effects were spotless (I'm guessing it was ILM, but you can call me out on that one), the script bearable for a blockbuster like this, and the cinematography beautiful.

Nolan also called in a few favours for this 'final' Batman film's cast. Notably, Tom Hardy as Bane, whose personality both helped and hindered his performance - he's tough and edgy, and that worked with the brute-lie bulk of Bane; but his shouty British voice and not-so-tough eyes took the edge off some of the grittier scenes. Nonetheless he was the best in it. Christian Bale annoyed me with that growly Batman voice he puts on, Michael Caine was Michael Caine, Anne Hathaway played the stereotypical catwoman character, Joseph Gordon-Levitt did his norm and Marion Cotillard seems like she's fast becoming typecast (spoilerz!). It was Nolan's handpicked faves at their finest.

Honestly, the only real thing that let the film down for me was simply that it was a Batman film. There was no escaping that stupid outfit, the bat logo and the preposterous heroics. But, if you're into that sort of thing, you can't do much better than this.

★★★☆☆